


O:FKT Extras

by Brushfire



Series: O:FKT AU [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Drabble Collection, M/M, Multi, Short Comics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-02-05 22:50:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12804081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brushfire/pseuds/Brushfire
Summary: Some extra shorts and drabbles taking place at various times throughout O:FKT's plot. Mostly VKaiMiza and all pairings between, some gen, some deleted scenes featuring other characters entirely. Half of these don't pertain specifically to the AU as much as they could be treated as standalone.





	1. Ruminating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place after they get Kaito back (spoilers; they get Kaito back. But you already knew that.)   
> In the aftermath, Kaito wonders where exactly he fits in to the dynamic that grew in his absence.

The light of the laptop vanished suddenly, as a hand reached from behind and closed the lid with a snap. Kaito startled and turned in his seat to make out the faint silhouette of Mizael looming over him. He expected a lecture for the late hour, but instead Mizael simply took his hand, drawing him to his feet and leading him out of the living room and down the hall. Kaito followed without protest, but when he realized where Mizael was leading he hesitated. Mizael came to a stop when he felt that Kaito had stopped walking. His hand tightened around Kaito's and he stepped close, closer than Kaito was comfortable with most people being. But Mizael was an exception. Mizael was always an exception.

Chris, who was undoubtedly already asleep behind the door they faced, had once been an exception as well, but now fell into some strange, nebulous place that Kaito couldn't seem to reach. 

"Is this okay?" He found himself asking, the words little more than a murmur. Even in the low light, Mizael's blue eyes were piercing.

"Is it?" Mizael asked in turn.

Kaito had no good answer, so he didn't. Instead he let himself be led into the dark room and onto the bed, where he found himself laying between Mizael and the lump beneath the sheets that was Chris. Kaito lay rigid; his back was to Chris as was Chris's to his own, and yet he was suddenly so aware of his fear of rejection it was nearly palpable. Things hadn't ever quite been mended between them, at least not properly. With everything that had been going on at the time, it had been all to easy to shove it by the wayside and silently agree to talk about it when they had gotten the chance. But Chris and Kaito were alike in that they could be fantastically nonconfrontational when they sought to. It was a blessing, really, that Mizael had such little patience for that sort of thing.

Then there was that matter, the matter of Mizael and Chris. So much had happened in the five years Kaito was gone; of all of them, this possibly left him the most disoriented and unsure of where he fit. 

Kaito felt Chris shift. Despite Mizael's calming touch on his arm and steady gaze, Kaito's muscles stiffened even further if such a thing were possible. The mattress dipped behind him, and from the way Mizael's eyes left his face and looked somewhere above him, Kaito could tell that Chris had sat up, or propped himself on an elbow in the least. Kaito's breathing sounded too loud in his own ears as for a moment Chris and Mizael seemed to share some silent conversation; then Chris dropped himself back onto the mattress, and Kaito found an arm around his waist, tucking him back against a warm body and into a place he'd once been all too familiar with. Mizael's hand left his arm to tangle itself with one of Katio's own. Chris said nothing, but his breath warm and even on the back of Kaito's neck, and Kaito could feel the nervous tension seeping from his body with every exhale.

"Is it?" Mizael asked again, barely a whisper in the dark. This time Kaito had an answer, in the form of a nod and the tightening of fingers. The smile that broke out on Mizael's face was nothing short of genuine. Kaito let his eyes fall shut as Mizael pressed his lips to Kaito's forhead and tucked himself close. 

For the first time in many years, cramped between two unfairly tall men in a bed too small for the three of them, Kaito felt completely and utterly safe. Perhaps in the morning the questioning would return, and he'd wonder if it's really alright for him to disrupt what had grown between his old flame and the newer (though literally far older) one, wonder if there's truly a place for him in that picture, but for now he let out a contented sigh and let their warmth carry his mind to somewhere quiet.


	2. Tricksters and Gamblers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A deleted scene from later in the story.  
> Reiji and Dennis have a conversation. Or Reiji would call it that. Dennis thinks of it more as extortion.

In retrospect, he probably should have seen this coming. Shoot him for having a heart, then. He had stepped in to prevent Gongenzaka and Yuzu from running into Academia’s trap, and now he’s sitting in a featureless room, on a fold out chair with a worn down cushion, hands tied behind his back. Dennis knew an interrogation when he saw one.

“It seems as though the twisted fascination with child soldiers runs in the family.”

Reiji bristled, and Dennis’ grin widened.  _ Good. Feel uncomfortable, you manipulative bastard. _

“They’re not children.”

“They’re  _ barely _ not children. And Reira, I’m fairly confident, constitutes as a child.”

Reiji’s posture was rigid, his lips pressed thin. Dennis relaxed into his seat and lifted his leg to rest his ankle on a knee.

“How old are you, then?”

Dennis blinked, the question catching him off guard. A weird thing to ask, and not something Dennis would expect from Reiji. Nevertheless, he answered.

“Nineteen.”

“So…you’ve been with Academia for a while, then.”

“A while’s an understatement. Let’s see, it’s been…” he paused, pretending to do the math in his head. Dramatic effect, for good measure. “...fourteen years.”

“You were one of the first, then.”

“Pretty much.” He grinned, voice sliding back into an old timbre he hadn't used in years. " _ Seems easy, roight? Go t’ Broadway, pick up some lil' rat off th' streets of th' Jukes. Dress'm up, teach'm Japanese, put a stack'a cards in 'is hands, make'm int'ah proper soldier. _ ” He snorted, as though there was something funny about it. There was nothing funny about it. “I’m the only one from my class who survived, that’s for damn sure.”

Reiji fell silent. If Dennis didn’t hate his guts, he would almost feel sorry for him. Dealing with the fact that your father partook in child trafficking for the sake of building an army must be a heavy weight. But Reiji had turned around and done nearly the same thing. So no, Dennis didn’t feel bad. He just felt his arms going numb.

"It's surprising you still have an accent," Reiji said finally.

"Only souvenir I own.” Dennis shifted in his seat, trying to get the blood flowing to his arms. “So? I doubt you came here solely to hear my tragic backstory.”

Reiji seemed to snap out of whatever uncertainty Dennis had goaded him into. Despite the part of Dennis that relished in seeing Reiji be uncomfortable for once, he wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. He didn’t like being the subject of questioning – never did.

“I came here with a proposition.”

“If it’s about me rejoining the Lancers, the answer is no.”

“A quick decision.”

“Listen here, Akaba. I am sick and tired of playing into the hands of your family. I don’t want to remain caught in the middle of your feud.”

“What is it you want, then?”

“I want my fucking life back,” he snapped. “You have all done a damn good job of taking it from me. I want out.”

“You want to cut all ties and be left to do as you will.”

“Yes.”

“What about Ruri?”

Dennis froze. Of course it would come to this. That was the way the Akabas were, Dennis knew this. It didn’t matter whether or not you gave them anything, they would always find something to hang over your head, like a knife on a string waiting to be cut. 

_ God damn it. _

“Shun will help her,” he said, but he knew the pause had been too long, that Reiji would know that his words had struck where he was vulnerable. “Besides, I doubt he'll believe I want to help her after what I let happen– after what I  _ did.  _ And I know for a fact that Ruri never wants to see my face again.”

“But this isn't about what's wanted,” Reiji pressed. “It's about what's needed.”

“So you're saying you  _ need _ me on your team,” Dennis replied. 

“I need what you know.”

“Really? Because I'm pretty sure that if the people the Tenjo kid’s got tagging along with him get their way, you won't be needing any insider information about Academia because there won't be anything of Academia  _ left. _ ”

“Perhaps,” Reiji said, adjusting his glasses, “but I'm not about to rely on such a gamble.”

“You'd rather rely on a trickster than a gambler?” Dennis barked out a laugh, sudden and loud enough to startle Reiji oh-so-slightly. “I guess I was wrong about you then, Akaba.”

“How so?”

Dennis flashed a wicked grin. “I thought you were some kind of genius, but now I see you're just a damn idiot.”


	3. Adjusting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something I found myself writing at one in the morning. Not necessarily ofkt, though it could certainly take place in the year between Zexal II's ending and Kaito's disappearance. Mostly exploring headcanons.
> 
> For clarification: I view the Barians as having arrived in the Barian world in the order they were killed. Alito would have died around 300 BCE, whereas Mizael died in 1209 CE and Gilag somewhere in the 1400s, with the rest coming after at around 1600-1700. Hence why Mizael and Alito have known each other for so long.

When Mizael finally got himself to cross his room and open the door to what he'd assumed to be Haruto’s knocking, it wasn't Haruto standing there. It was Alito.   
  
"Hey," Alito flashed a smile, charming as ever. "Can I come in?"   
  
"How did you even get in here?" The question came out annoyed, but he left the door open regardless as he sat back down on his bed, and Alito took the silent affirmation for what it was.   
  
"Haruto let me in."   
  
"When did you-" Oh. Right. Yuma. Mutual friend. That's how they'd know each other. Huffing out a breath, Mizael switched his question. "What are you doing here?"   
  
If Alito were anyone else, he might've come up with a joke, or a snide answer of some sort. But this was Alito, and Alito always wore his heart on his sleeve with an honesty that made Mizael jittery out of concern that he'd get hurt because of it, so he just smiled again and said, "I was worried about you. I wanted to see if you're okay."   
  
"I'm fine," Mizael groused. "You can go home and tell the others that now. Mizael's fine, we can all move on with our lives now and stop pretending like we care about what one another thinks!"   
  
"The others don't know I'm here," Alito said. "I told them I was hanging out with Yuma and I told Yuma I was going to the convenience store."   
  
"So you lied to them."   
  
"Nope!" Alito proudly lifted up a plastic bag that Mizael hadn't noticed him holding until now, some brand or slogan printed on the side. "I went with Yuma to the convenience store. I got you those things you like- can I sit on your bed?" He waited until Mizael nodded before taking a seat at the end of his bed, putting the bag between them and opening it wide. "At least I think they're the kind you like? The box looked familiar. I'm still not great with kanji yet, so I wasn't sure."   
  
They were the kind he liked, and he told Alito as much before thanking him. The look of victory on Alito’s face was one that someone would expect from someone who won a race or aced a test or something.    
  
"How is that going, by the way?" Mizael opened the box and popped a candy into his mouth, shunting away the part of himself that reprimanded his own love for the sugary treat. He deserved this, damn it.   
  
"Pretty good. The tutor's really nice about it, and the school hasn't asked many questions. I got a copy of the Odyssey. I remember hearing about it when it was first written, so to find it still around is crazy! It's way too complicated right now but I'm working towards it."   
  
"Goals are good," Mizael said with a nod. He knew more about Alito's past than any of the others, and even then it wasn't much. But it was enough to not have been very surprised when Alito finally admitted to not only being unable to read Japanese - a shared problem between him, Mizael, and Durbe - but being unable to read at all.   
  
"That's enough about me though," Alito said, opening a box of pocky for himself. "I wanted to see how you're doing."   
  
"I'm fine, Alito. I told you that."   
  
"Mizael, you dropped out of school and moved out without explanation. I'm not sure if that's you being 'fine'."   
  
That got an exaggerated sigh from Mizael, who flopped back onto his pillow.   
  
"Mizael, come on," Alito poked his side, making him squirm away, "it's me. You can talk to  _ me _ even if you can't talk to the others."   
  
He hesitated for a long moment, before covering his face with his hands and making a loud sound of frustration. "I don't know what I'm doing!"    
  
It wasn't really what he'd expected himself to say. This wasn't why he left the Kamashiro manor, or why he dropped out of school. But it probably had something to do with both, if he were to be honest.   
  
"Right now or...?"    
  
"In general! About anything! At all!!" Mizael interrupted him, moving his hands away from his face in favor of gripping his hair, knuckles hard against his own scalp. It was as of the dam that had been holding in his frustration these past few months had finally caved and broke, flooding Mizael with the feeling all at once. "I don't know what I'm doing here, or  _ why _ I'm here, or how anything works, or-"   
  
"I'm pretty sure that's a problem we're all having-"   
  
"NO! No you don't get it! This isn't  _ new _ for you! You were a human already!!"   
  
Alito frowned, visibly trying to work out what Mizael was getting at. "You weren't?"   
  
"I was raised by Jinlong! By a  _ dragon! _ I lived on a  _ mountain  _ with a  _ dragon!”  _ He emphasized his words with a jerky gesture each. It was probably the most animated and least composed that… well that Alito had seen him in a long time, at least. “Sure I interacted with the villagers sometimes but I didn't  _ live _ with them! I don't know anything about human society!!”

He hadn't expected that. But it made sense, now that Mizael had fit all the pieces together for him. Mizael deflated, his burst of anger seemingly gone as soon as it came.

“That's not why you left though, is it?” He ventured. Mizael sighed tiredly.

“No, I left because I can't stand to look at Durbe or Nasch right now. Or anyone, really.” Especially after having grown close to Haruto, and after even having come to know Christopher if only peripherally, the guilt of having stood aside while Vector coaxed the Varians into using them as pawns and destroying their lives ate away at him too strongly. Looking around and seeing the others so carefree and unconcerned about the hurt and pain  _ they had caused _ angered him too much for him to hide or handle anymore. So he left. Leaving school was more of an accident. He just… stopped going after a while. It seemed silly to try.

He didn't explain  _ why  _ to Alito, but he didn't need to. Alito knew. Mizael knew that Alito knew because Alito was the only other one who struggled with justifying their actions at the time. Because Alito had pulled him aside, before he had even met Tsukumo Yuma and practically fell for the boy on the very spot, and told Mizael  _ “I don't think this is right.” _

Mizael sat up to find Alito looking out the window, a rare, serious expression on his face and the end of a pocky stick dangling from between his lips, forgotten in his contemplation. Eventually, Alito drew the pocky from his mouth, chewing on the bite he had taken thoughtfully before turning to Mizael with that uncharacteristically solemn look still in his eyes.

It wasn't uncharacteristic to Mizael, but Mizael had known Alito longer than anyone else did, knew that Alito had spent two thousand years in the Varian world alone and wondering before Mizael had shown up in an eruption of lightning and a scream of despair. Even though it was a scant few centuries before Gilag would join them and the two would hit it off famously, that time where it had just been the two of them had formed a familiarity and deep-seated trust between them that was unique from the rest.

“I get what you mean,” Alito said finally. “I'm not angry at them, it's hard to be you know? But it does bother me. A lot. I don't think Gilag really understood why when I tried to bring it up the other day.” He reached over, stealing one of Mizael’s candies from the box. Mizael made a short noise of protest but didn't make any move to stop the theft. “It was Haruto, wasn't it? That really brought it back, I mean.”

“Yes,” Mizael said. “It was Haruto.”

“He's a really sweet kid. Didn't deserve anything that Vector did to him.”

“What we  _ all _ did to him.”

“Yeah,” Alito agreed, his tone heavy. 

_ It nearly killed him _ were the unspoken words that hung heavy between them.

“Hey, let's make a deal,” Alito said abruptly. He grinned at Mizael, startling him with the sudden change in mood. “You help me learn to read better, and I'll help you learn people-stuff. How does that sound?”

Mizael mulled over it briefly before saying, “I'm not coming to the manor.”

“Nah, I'll come here! I'll think of some excuse. To be honest I think I need a break from it too. It's nice around here. Quiet.”

“It's just me and Haruto during the week. Kaito’s with Christopher and their fathers working at the lab until late.”

“Well I don't think that Haruto would mind me hanging around some.” Mizael only just caught the glint of mischief in his eyes before he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted out towards the hallway: “HEY HARUTO! I'M GOING TO BE HANGING AROUND HELPING MIZAEL BE LESS OF A GRUMP, IS THAT OKAY WITH YOU?”

Whatever Haruto shouted back was lost beneath Mizael’s cry of indignation and Alito’s laughter as Mizael wrestled him onto the floor.


	4. [COMIC] Some guilts will only drag you down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shortly pre-OFKT.


End file.
